Author: Cheri Lovre

Publisher:

Published: 1993-09-01

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9780989193801

This resource begins with a checklist of things to do and brief explanations of each item on the list. The next section provides forms, fliers and letters with permission to copy those pages during crises to assist in the response, including guidelines for administrators, counselors and teachers, agendas for meetings, templates for announcements to students and parent letters to be sent home. The section on Safe Rooms outlines materials and supplies needed to help students grieve. Included is a chapter on activities to do with youth to assist in the grieving process, including both art and other activities. One chapter covers unusual or challenging deaths (suicide, homicide, missing children and more). Suggestions for Life Tributes (a school-based, student organized memory gathering) are provided. A section on trauma gives a basic format for understanding how those who were at the scene of a death may struggle and how schools can support those assist those students to continue to participate in the academic process in spite of the difficulties with memory and focus. The chapter on follow-up provides key factors in preventing one crisis from cascading into more. Finally, staff tasks and assignments are listed. The book is organized such that what one needs to respond to the crisis at hand is in the front of the book, easy and fast to find when every second counts. Information about planning and training is in the back. The book is designed to be what school staff reach for in the heat of the moment, so the organization of the first half is based on the timelines of what is needed at each step along the way during the crisis. When first examining the book, users are encouraged to start at the back for organizational information to put in place, knowing that, when crisis strikes, what you need immediately is on page one.